Cheap Metal Dice?

Interested2 · Sep 6, 2004

Do you guys know any place I can order cheap metal dice? Not the 25 buck sets sold by Crystal Caste, something more along the lines of 10, MAYBE 15 bucks...

haiiro · Sep 7, 2004

I've never seen cheap metal dice. When you consider that a plastic poly set costs around $5-7 (a good set, at least), $10-15 for a metal poly set would be very cheap.

Queen_Dopplepopolis · Sep 7, 2004

The absolute cheapest I've ever seen is the $25 set by Crystal Caste... and I've looked really hard.

Fieari · Sep 7, 2004

You could always learn how to make a plaster mold and then make your own with melted solder... I've copied some figurines that way, although plaster can be tricky to work with.

Obfuscated · Sep 7, 2004

The cheapest (serviceable set) you will find are made by Koplow games. And the cheapest price I've seen for a full set is $19.95

Like here

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merch...e=RAF&Product_Code=RAF08007&Category_Code=PPD

Tarodin · Sep 10, 2004

RAFM makes a set of 7 dice from pewter, which are the standard sizes (around 16mm across the face of a d6). That sells for $17.95 US right now at www.advancinghordes.com (direct link: http://www.advancinghordes.com/product_info.php/manufacturers_id/7/products_id/126). It's on sale until mid September. Regular price is $19.95 US.

If you just want a d10 and a d10 (00-90), there is a pewter pair made by Gamescience, for $7.00 US (direct link: http://www.advancinghordes.com/product_info.php/products_id/325).

Crystal Caste's metal dice are 12mm scale. They are available in copper, steel, silver, gold-plate, & brass. They aren't cheap, but they are gorgeous. You can see them at AdvancingHordes.com too.

RSKennan · Sep 10, 2004

To those suggesting pewter dice- wouldn't they be very bad to play with? Pewter's so malleable, I couldn't imagine them being fair for any period of time.

Tarodin · Sep 11, 2004

Pewter is reasonably maleable, true. However, the compact shape of dice would reduce any distortion caused by rolling.

Even pewter character figures can take quite a bit of falling over before they show signs of distortion (bent swords, scraped noses), and they are much thinner metal and less regular shape than any die.

Rolled on a softish surface, like a tablecloth or a dice-mat, I'm sure the pewter dice would stand up to regular use. After all, cups and plates were made from pewter in medieval times (until they realized about the lead!) and were preferred to clay because they lasted so well.

BTW most pewter is lead free nowadays. It might be a touch harder in the new formulation, I don't really know... any metalurgists out there??

haiiro · Sep 11, 2004

Tarodin said:
BTW most pewter is lead free nowadays. It might be a touch harder in the new formulation, I don't really know... any metalurgists out there??

When the big "minis have to be lead-free" thing happened in the '90s, I remember the newer pewter figs being a bit more brittle than the old ones. For the stuff I bought (mostly BattleTech), it didn't make much of a difference.